"Special Guest Star: PARSNIP! This surprisingly sweet and mild vegetable is often underrated, if not overlooked altogether. Discover it here, and you might find yourself grating it into your salads as well."

I just bought a roll of refrigerated polenta and I have no idea what to do with it. I tried to just fry it in cooking spray but it wasn't very good. Does anyone have any ideas for how I can prepare it or what kind of sauce goes well with it? Thanks, Valerie

I use polenta a lot because its so quick and easy and you get a lot for few points. You may just not care for the plain variety - they also make many different flavors (at my market anyway) like sundried tomato, garlic, etc. My favorite way to cook it is on the grill - I spray my grill pan with no fat spray and grill it for about 3 minutes a side. It goes great with any pasta sauce or with grilled veggies, some places also eat it as a sweet treat (think corn meal mush) and serve it for breakfast with butter and syrup, like pancakes.

I made some once in the food processor from: Brown Rice, ground chick peas & it was very sticky I got the recipe from Vegetarian Times. I made it & it was pretty hard to work with and didn't taste that good to me.

Cafe Express had raved about their homemade veggie burger made with plantains & black beans - I think they left out the taste on that one too.

I hope you can find one you can perk up some, sorry I couldnt've had better news. I guess mabie the homemade ones will be kinda crumbly. Good Luck!!

This is a delicious recipie that is so easy and keeps about a month in the fridge. Slice 1 red onion into very thin slices. Put it in a jar and pour 1/2 bottle of seasoned rice vinegar over it. Throw in a few whole peppercorns if you remember. Put the lid on and refrigerate for 24 hours. The onions get limp but still stay crunchy and this is GREAT on burgers(well, I put them on veggie burgers) but they are a wonderful sandwich addition and no points! I hope you love them as much as I do. Remember though, use only Seasoned rice vinegar--not regular.

Saut'e onions and mushrooms in sprayed pan over medium heat. When they start to soften add garlic. Cook, stirring until cooked but not too soft. Mix cornstarch with water and add that and rest of ingredients. Cook stirring until thickened. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Variations: For lunch today I added 1 1/2 cups cooked pasta and some leftover broccoli for a 4.5 point lunch.
Stew: While this is cooking put 1 cup frozen peas,diced carrots, and a peeled, diced potato in the micro with a little water. Cover and cook veggies until done Add to mushroom sauce.

Tonight I am putting the other serving on a baked potato with a slice of Kraft 2% swiss cheese melted on top!!
A little fat free sour cream and noodles would make a great mushroom stroganoff! Anybody have any other ideas??

Martha Stewart Living had a Black Bean burger recipe in the summer of 2003. I don't remember which month, but if you go to your library and thumb through you should find it. They were pretty good, but like someone said above, kinda bland and crumbly. I recommend seasoned bread crumbs, and eating them fresh. However they do freeze well. And are much better with cheese on top!

That list of recipes from deb165 looks fabulous! I may have to try the peanut burgers with Satay sauce sometime soon.